Three Angles: A History of Cleveland Art at the CAN Triennial

The Artists Archives of the Western Reserve (AAWR) and ARTneo are proud to present Three Angles: A History of Cleveland Art, a three-part exhibition curated from their permanent collections for the inaugural year of the CAN triennial.  Located in ARTneo’s gallery, Tregoning & Company’s south gallery, and Survival Kit, Three Angles features a historic look at the 20th century in Cleveland art featuring paintings, prints and drawings, and sculpture.  The exhibition, organized by media over the three gallery spaces, illustrates the great breadth of talent and creative thinking possessed by Northeast Ohio artists and celebrates their long history of artistic innovation.

Three Angles uses early 20^th century works from ARTneo’s permanent collection to trace the artistic development of the region.  Beginning with the Cleveland School, the show examines how influences from Europe’s avant-garde made their way into local work. Artists from this era hail from two distinct schools: the traditional Cleveland Society of Artists, including George Adomeit and Ora Coltman, and the more radical, modernist Cleveland Secessions, such as Henry Keller, William Sommer and Abel Warshawky.

The exhibition also follows the whirl-wind of innovation that characterized the pre- and post- war eras. Featured artists include Erdis Eckhardt, Elmer Brown, Kalman Kubinyi, employed by the Public Works projects of the Great Depression, John Teyral, William Ward, and Anthony Vaiksnoras who were influenced by (but not entirely committed to) the Abstract Expressionism of the 1950’s, Ed Mieczkowski and David E. Davis, representatives of the Geometric Abstraction of the 1960’s as well as Shirley Aley Campbell, Phyllis Sloane and Phyllis Seltzer who marked the return of Cleveland artists to figurative and representational art in the 1970s.

Works from the collection of the Artists Archives focus on mid-to-late 20^th century artists, and invite viewers to observe how these later artists synthesize the influence of the Cleveland School into expressions of personal and regional identity.  On display will lesser shown pieces such as an assemblage by Roy Bigler and a maquette by large-scale sculptor Jon Barlow Hudson in addition to the work of regional staples such as Augusto Bordelois, Anthony Eterovich, Miller Horns, Adele Marihatt, William Martin Jean, Patricia Zinsmeister Parker, George Roby, and Judy Takács.

ARTneo curator Christopher Richards explains, “Presenting a century of Cleveland area artists’ works shows a diverse array of experimentation. There is no style that can easily be a defining factor … as the artists of the region were eager to adopt and explore multiple techniques and movements in modern art.  Examining the works by media …demonstrating their ability to observe and adapt ideas to develop their own unique voices, each artist adds to the artistic story of Cleveland”

Featured image: Denise Buckley, Ireland, Cast bronze, permanent collection of the AAWR